Obsession with lifestyle--whether aspects of mainstream culture are feminist--turns attention back on the self rather than women's position in society and attendant life chances. As Linda R. Hirschman puts it:

"Choice feminism", the shadowy remnant of the original movement, tells women that their choices, everyone's choices, the incredibly constrained "choices" they make, are good choices. Everyone says if feminism failed it was because it was too radical. But we know--and surely the real radical, Betty Friedan, knew--that it wasn't because feminism was too radical. It was because feminism wasn't radical enough. A movement that stands for everything ultimately stands for nothing.